I scanned the ocean's surface

and saw your inky dorsal fin,

rising as a rigid rapier

where nothing once had been.

I saw you knifing through the water

so far away and free.

I came here seeking orcas

and found the Phantom of the sea.

 

You were no catatonic cetacean,

more than a distant speck of black.

I glimpsed your shimmering topside.

I watched you thrust it back.

The waves parted around you.

You broke the surface in your glee.

I saw you and was mesmerized,

Phantom of the sea.

 

You were never alone

out in the cerulean splash of wave.

Boats and skiffs surrounded you.

Tourists gawked and raved.

You slipped below the surface

away from eyes that couldn't let you be.

I saw you once in passing,

Phantom of the sea.

 

I dreamed that night of whales.

In my mind I saw your raven form.

You breached above gyrating swells,

mixing the waves into a swirling storm.

I heard your eerie wails

and thought you sang for me.

You haunted me in my dreams,

Phantom of the sea.

 

I can't escape your watery spell.

You hold me in a trance.

I remember that mask of white.

A face fit for a masquerade dance.

I recall you in your ocean cloak

wrapping me in this fantasy.

I see you now and always,

Phantom of the sea.